


only two (just me and you)

by settledthesun



Category: Carmilla (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-06
Updated: 2015-03-13
Packaged: 2018-03-16 15:23:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,517
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3493334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/settledthesun/pseuds/settledthesun
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Laura Hollis has a routine. Every Monday and Friday she heads to Silas U’s best coffee place, Artemis Café, at around 11am and settles down with a nice hot cocoa to work on her assignments.</p><p>Today, however, that routine has been broken. She's not happy about it.</p><p>or</p><p>Laura finds herself spending more and more time at the campus coffee shop after meeting regular customer and VP of the Summer Society, Danny Lawrence.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> woah, i've been working on this forever and finally got it finished up today. it's about 9k in total so i'll probably make it a two-shot.
> 
> title from jack johnson's 'better together'
> 
> for ginjointsintheworld over on tumblr. may we continue to be emotionally compromised by hollence au headcanons

Laura Hollis has a routine.

Every Monday and Friday she heads to Silas U’s best coffee place, Artemis Café, at around 11am, following her 9am seminars (ugh, morning) and settles down with a nice hot cocoa to work on her assignments.

She’s been doing this for a couple of months now, and it’s something she looks forward to. She’s even on first name terms with a few of the baristas, Elsie in particular, which is like, super cool, because she thought that kind of thing only happened in bad teen movies. Artemis Café (or the A-Caf as it’s known to students) is the most popular café on campus, and is a stomping ground of sorts for the Summer Society. Laura’s never had much to do with them (they don’t accept first years) but Elsie’s a member, so Laura hears things about them from her whilst sipping on her cocoa.

Today, however, that routine has been broken.

And she’s not happy about it.

She had woken up to an email saying that her Wednesday 9am seminar had been cancelled. Laura had squealed happily, preparing to snuggle back up into bed and get another few hours of sleep, when Carmilla had arrived.

Carmilla, Laura’s kind-of friend, but undisputed roommate from Hell, had a habit of going out at bizarre hours of the night and coming back sometime the next morning. Normally this didn’t bother Laura, as she would either be in class or in the library in the morning, but now, as she attempted to burrow back into her duvet whilst Carmilla kicked her boots off across the room, and turned her stereo up, it was definitely a problem.

‘Carm,’ Laura finally groans, poking her head out of her duvet. ‘Can you please turn that down?’

‘Oh, sorry Cupcake, I didn’t realise that puppy-sized lump in the bed was you,’ Carmilla replies with a smirk, barely looking in Laura’s direction. She makes no move to change the volume.

‘Yes, well, it’s me. I am here. In my room. Trying to sleep.’

‘My, my, you’re not cutting class are you?’ Carmilla asks in exaggerated shock.

‘No, my class was cancelled, and I would really, really like to go back to sleep, but I can’t because of your angry, shouty music!’

‘Hey, don’t knock the Ramones.’ Laura grumbles into her pillow in frustration, and Carmilla just rolls her eyes. ‘Sorry, but this is my allocated time to do with the room what I want. I always let you watch your weird shows in the evening. I’ve had enough of Buffy and Doctor What for a lifetime.’

‘Doctor Who,’ Laura corrects, resigning herself to the fact she was going to have to get up.

‘Doctor Who-the-Hell-Cares. You’re more than welcome to do what you want, but I am not turning my music down.’

‘Ugh, fine!’ Laura jumps up out of bed, grabbing clean clothes from the wardrobe and stomping into the bathroom, hissing ‘you’re the worst’ in the general direction of where Carmilla was lounging on her own bed, playing the air-drums with a couple of pens.

Stupid, lazy, existentialist, punk rock roommate.

 

So here she is, twenty minutes later, crossing campus, and still muttering to herself about Carmilla.

She checks her phone for the time, and realises it’s only half eight. She’s never awake this early if she doesn’t have class. With a heavy sigh, she glances around at the few zombie-like students trudging across campus.

(She’s using zombie as an adjective here, but there was a weird situation a few weeks ago with previously dead vacuum-packed lab rats running around the biology department…

Whatever, Silas is weird.)

She catches sight of a coffee cup in one of the student’s hands, and makes a quick decision to change her direction, heading away from the Library and instead sets off for the A-Caf.

Minutes later she’s pushing the door to the coffee shop open, smiling at the enthusiastic wave she gets from Elsie. 

‘Hey Laura, don’t usually see you around here this early in the morning. The usual?’

‘My class was cancelled and my roommate’s a jerk, so, here I am. And please.’

‘Carmilla Karnstein, right? Yeah, she can be kind of an ass. Hot, though.’

‘You-.’ Laura’s eyes widen, before closing as she tries to scrub that mental image from her brain. ‘You know what, I don’t even want to know. Ever.’

Elsie laughs, taking Laura’s money from her and shooting her a dramatic wink. ‘I never kiss and tell.’

‘Gross, gross, gross,’ Laura mumbles. ‘Alright, well I’ll be over by the window, researching the most effective method of memory loss.’

‘You got it, I’ll be over in a minute.’

Laura shakes her head at Elsie, and heads for her usual table. She slings her bag off of her shoulder, reaching in to grab her copy of Beowulf and opening on the page she’d gotten halfway through last night until Carmilla had started throwing cheese puffs at her from across the room.

(She makes a mental note to replace Carmilla’s ‘special soy milk’ with something gross.)

She’s two pages in when Elsie brings her drink over, and she smiles in thanks.

It’s a whole twelve pages later when she gets distracted by the sound of the bell signalling a new customer.

She doesn’t look up at first, determined to get as much done as possible, but she gives in at the sound of a particularly loud laugh from Elsie, and spots her dramatically wiping away faux-tears as another girl glares at her.

‘Oh man, this is great.’

‘No, Elsie, it’s not. ‘It’ll be fun,’ you said. ‘You need to loosen up.’

‘Actually, I think I said you might end up getting some.’

‘I sincerely hope you enjoy the fifty push-ups you’re gonna be doing at training tonight.’

‘Aw, c’mon Cap, I was trying to help you out!’

‘You set me up on a blind date with someone who spent the whole night talking about how Twilight is the greatest novel of the last half-century.’

‘Maybe she has her reasons. Hey, Hollis, you’re a Lit nerd, what do you think?’

Laura, who had given up on any attempt to be subtle about watching them, all but squeaked as Elsie addressed her. The other girl turns to look at her, and Laura takes a few seconds to fully appreciate the view.

The girl has long red hair pulled back in a haphazard pony tail, with bright jeans and chucks. A leather satchel hangs from her right shoulder as she leans against the counter. Laura didn’t know the act of leaning could look so good, but here she was.

‘Elsie, don’t harass the customers,’ the girl says, and Laura realises she hadn’t replied. She prays to Buffy that she wasn’t gaping.

‘Actually, I’m a journalist nerd,’ she finds herself saying, and the girl laughs.

‘Whatever, you’re always reading something when you’re in here. You’re almost as bad as Danny,’ she says with a nod in the girl’s direction.

Danny. 

‘That just means she has good taste,’ Danny smiles and-, oh god, if Laura didn’t think she was gorgeous before…

‘Anyway, I just came in to tell you that I hate you and grab a coffee to help me get through grading these papers,’ Danny says as one of the other baristas hands her a steaming to-go cup. ‘So it looks like I’m done here.’

‘Bye Lover-Girl.’

‘Shut up, Elsie,’ Danny calls over her shoulder as she heads for the door. She glances at Laura as she passes, offering her another smile: ‘Later, Journalism,’ and then she’s gone.  
Laura watches her through the window as she heads down the street, stopping briefly to talk to a Lit professor Laura recognises, before disappearing out of view.

To her credit, Laura manages to last a whole ten minutes until she’s up at the counter. She orders one of the A-Caf’s infamous chocolate muffins, and decides to try and put her journalist skills to use.

‘So, I haven’t seen your friend here around here before.’

‘Who, Danny?’ Elsie asks, ignoring the customer trying to get her attention in favour of Laura. ‘She comes in here most days, but it’s usually early morning and early evening. She’s Professor Ellis’ TA, so she has a pretty hectic schedule. Summer Society takes up a lot of her time too.’

‘Oh, she’s in the Summer Society with you?’

Elsie shoots her an amused look. ‘Dude, Danny’s the Vice President. For an aspiring journalist, you don’t know much about what’s going on around campus, do you?’

Laura takes offense at this, huffing as she raises her head. ‘I’ll have you know I’m very well informed on Silas U, thank you very much. Have you ever considered that some people simply aren’t as obsessed with Greek life as much as others?’ 

‘Oh yeah, because that totally explains why you came over here to interrogate me about it.’

‘I didn’t even know Danny was in the Summer Society.’

‘Oh, so it’s the individual members you’re interested in?’

‘What? No, I-. Never mind, can I just have my order please.’

‘Sure,’ Elsie says, wrapping it and handing it over. ‘Maybe next time Danny can help you with your muffin.’

Elsie ends up having to give her a free bottle of water to wash down the mouthful of cake Laura promptly chokes on.

 

Laura’s stretched out on her bed, trying to make up the reading she failed to get done earlier in the café, when Carmilla gets back.

Laura watches as she takes a few swigs from her soy milk, before collapsing face down on her bed and groaning.

‘Long day? Laura asks, turning her attention back to her book.

‘Every day is long in this Godforsaken place.’ Laura had long ago given up trying to understand why Carmilla was even here when she spent a good 75% of any given day complaining about the school.

A few minutes later, Carmilla pushes herself up from the bed, grabbing a change of clothes and informing Laura that she’s gonna get a shower. Before she can head into the bathroom, however, Laura stops her.

Laura had spent the afternoon trying to work out how to learn more about Danny without seeming like a stalker. She’d even ended up making a list.

Things I know about Tall, Gorgeous Danny:  
\- She’s the VP of the Summer Society  
\- She’s a Lit TA  
\- So presumably a Lit Major  
\- Also presumably in her third year  
\- She’s tall  
\- And cute  
\- She’s into girls  
\- Like really, really cute

In the end she had decided to ask Carmilla when she next saw her. Carmilla was a third year Philosophy student, and claimed to be twenty one. She says claimed, because as a general rule of thumb Laura tends not to believe most thing that leave Carmilla’s mouth, and sometimes she makes weird references to things that definitely happened over twenty years ago. But anyway, Laura figured it would be worth asking her, in case their paths had ever crossed at any point.

‘Do you by any chance know a girl called Danny? Tall. Red hair. I think she’s a Lit major.’

‘Do I look like a search engine?’

‘Search engines don’t leave their hair in the shower drain, so no.’

‘Why do you want to know?’

‘It’s for, uh, an article. Yes. An article. On the Summer Society.’

Carmilla raises her eyebrow. She’s made her dislike for the Zetas and the Summer Society well known. Frequently. To their faces.

‘Alright, it’s your time to waste, buttercup. I assume you mean Xena, then, the VP.’

Laura stops herself from calling Carmilla out on her pop culture reference, as she’s actually being cooperative for the first time ever.

‘We had an Intro to Philosophy class together one year,’ she continues. 

‘So she’s a third year too?’

‘As far as I know.’

‘What’s she like,’ Laura asks eagerly.

‘She’s, uh-. You know. What’s that saying?’ Carmilla says, humming and tapping her chin.

‘What? What?!’

Carmilla lights up and snaps her fingers, before letting her expression fall and says completely deadpan, ‘annoying as fuck.’

The door to the bathroom slams, and Laura’s fairly sure she can hear Carmilla laughing before she turns the shower on. She just huffs, picking her book back up and mumbling ‘rude’ under her breath.

 

Laura has just got out of her two hour journalism seminar and she's exhausted.

Carmilla had had one of her ‘study buddies’ over last night, so Laura had crashed at LaF’s dorm, which obviously led to a trashy sci-fi marathon into the early hours of the morning.

She groans at the ache in her left shoulder from falling asleep in an awkward position as she pushes the door to the A-Caf open. She shuffles over to the counter which, thankfully, is free of customers, and slumps against it dramatically.

‘Looking chipper, Frosh,’ Elsie says, leaning towards the tired girl and resting her chin on her hand.

‘Coffee,’ Laura mumbles into the woodwork.

‘What was that?’

‘Caffeine. I need it.’

‘I’m pretty sure this is the first time you’ve ordered a drink other than hot cocoa.’

‘I’m exhausted and I have a lecture in an hour, so I’m sucking it up just this once. Just-,’ Laura waves her hands around. ‘Just make it as sugary as possible.’

‘To disguise the fact that it’s actually coffee?’

‘I am the customer, it’s your job to fill my request.’

‘I think there’s someone else who might be interested in that job,’ Elsie says with a smirk, turning to work the coffee machine.

Before Laura can ask what she means, a voice from behind her calls out to her.

‘If Elsie doesn’t do as you say, I’ve found flicking her on the nose helps.’

Laura spins around quickly, almost knocking a stack of paper cups off the counter. Luckily Danny reaches out with a long arm and catches them, propping them back up with an amused smile.

‘I’ll have to remember that in the future,’ Laura replies. Then, ‘hi.’

‘Hello,’ Danny smiles. 

Elsie calls out to get her attention (‘yo, Hollis’) and hands her her drink.

‘I was under the impression you weren’t much of a coffee person,’ Danny says with a nod to Laura’s drink whilst handing a few dollars over to Elsie. When Laura raises a questioning eyebrow, Danny adds, ‘or that’s what Elsie said.’

‘You asked about me?’ Laura asks.

She delights in the way Danny’s cheeks seem to redden a little.

‘She did,’ Elsie supplies. ‘Kind of like how you inquired about Lawrence’s schedule here the other day.’

Now it was Laura’s turn to blush. Dammit.

‘Would you look at that, it’s time for my break,’ Elsie says, heading into the back room and throwing a smug grin over her shoulder.

‘I hate her,’ Danny states, and Laura laughs, feeling the tension easing away. Feeling brave, she offers her hand to Danny, who looks down at it in confusion.

‘I’m Laura,’ she says. ‘Journalist student and Elsie’s favourite freshman to torment.’

Danny grins at her and takes her hand.

(Her grip is soft and warm in Laura’s much smaller hand.)

‘Danny. Lit student, VP of the Summer Society and therefore possessing the power to torment Elsie on your behalf.’

‘Good to know,’ Laura smiles.

‘Sorry about this, but I’ve gotta run. I have class in like,’ she checks her watch, ‘five minutes, shit.’

‘Don’t let me keep you.’ She’d actually very much like to keep Danny all to herself, but decides it’d probably be a little creepy to admit that.

‘Maybe I’ll see you around,’ Danny says, sounding hopeful.

‘Yeah, maybe.’ Laura’s shocked she hasn’t managed to embarrass herself in the last forty seconds.

‘Cool,’ Danny grabs her drink from the counter. ‘Bye, then,’ she says with a smile, and then she’s gone.

Laura doesn’t realise she’s been standing there smiling at the door for a while until Elsie whistles and says, ‘smooth, Hollis.’

‘I thought you were on a break.’

‘Yeah, but this was much more fun.’

‘I hate you.’

 

For the first time in what feels like forever, Laura doesn’t have any immediate work that needs to be in.

She’d woken up that morning overwhelmed by the possibilities. She could hang out with LaF and Perry, or marathon Buffy, or even try and coerce Carmilla into some form of roommate bonding; she was thinking maybe a board game.

When she climbed out of bed, however, taking pleasure in the stretch of her limbs as she reached her arms above her head, she noticed the package that her dad had sent her the other day.

Her dad made sure to send her a parcel every month or so, and Laura always looked forward to excitedly tearing into it. She missed her dad like crazy, but they spoke often, and as much as she loved him, she was really enjoying the chance to figure out who she was outside of her small-town childhood.

This month he’d sent her a bunch of chocolate (the peanut butter cups were quickly devoured) a photo album she’d forgotten to bring with her, a new notebook, and some second-hand books he’d thought she might like.

Deciding it was too nice a day to spend on Netflix, Laura stuffed one of the books into her bag, left one of the chocolate bars on Carmilla’s bedside table (she’d started doing this since the first parcel, and although the two of them weren’t exactly BFFs, it would always be gone when she returned, and Carmilla would offer her a small smile in return) and headed out the door.

Fifteen minutes later, she’s perched on one of the window seats at the A-Caf, hot cocoa and brownie next to her, and seven pages into her book.

She takes a sip of her drink and sighs. This was a much better idea than staying shut up in her room.

She forgets about her book momentarily, instead taking the chance to people-watch from her place at the window.

She watches as a boy from her Lit class (Kirsch, she thinks) passes by with a bunch of his Zeta buddies, bouncing up and down excitedly as he goes. He notices her looking his direction and waves. She’s about to wave back, but sees him say (from what she can lip-read through the glass) ‘hey, little nerd hottie,’ and instead takes to rolling her eyes and goes back to her book.

Another ten minutes pass and she’s finished her drink. She turns the page and glances up through the window again.

Just as she does this, a flash of red hair passes by. 

Danny happens to glance through the window to the café and does a double take when she spots Laura, taking a large stride backwards to grin at her. Laura smiles back, offering a wave. In turn, Danny lifts a finger and mouths ‘one minute,’ before disappearing from view.

Laura’s smile falls, but she doesn’t have time to be disappointed before she hears the scrape of the chair next to her being pulled out, and turns her head to see Danny hopping into it.

‘Hey Laura,’ she says, that big, happy grin still in place.

‘Hi, Danny.’

‘Mind if I sit with you? I don’t have anywhere to be until this afternoon, so I figured I’d come hang out here, and, well- I guess it’s my lucky day because here you are.’  
Laura finds herself smiling even wider, which she didn’t think possible, and nods. ‘Of course.’

‘Great, I’m just gonna go grab a drink, I’ll be right back.’

Laura watches her go, her gaze drifting downwards and- okay, was there anything about Danny that wasn’t perfect? She then quickly shakes her head, chastising herself: Danny’s just being nice, that doesn’t mean you can ogle her ass. Her really, really nice ass-, no!

She goes back to her book, determined to shake such thoughts from her mind. A minute later, Danny returns, drink in hand. She sets it down on the bar they’re seated at, and props her head on her hand, smiling at Laura in a way that makes her feel slightly dizzy.

‘What are you reading?’ she asks

Laura holds up the cover, and Danny’s eye lights up. ‘Virginia Woolf, cool. I’m definitely a fan.’

‘It’s my first time reading her. My dad sent it up yesterday in a parcel.’ Laura falters, suddenly realising that it might not be the coolest thing to admit getting care-packages from your dad. But Danny just smiles, stirring her drink.

‘That’s nice of him. My mom likes to send me things too. When I was a freshman she would try and send me things every week. In the end I had to phone her up like, ‘Ma, there are only so many tubes of toothpaste and family recipes I can take.’’

Laura laughs around a mouthful of brownie, hand up to her mouth. ‘Still,’ she says once she’s swallowed. ‘It’s nice that they care so much.’

‘Oh yeah, totally. I’m the oldest so Mom had a hard time letting me go. ‘Danielle, are you sure you don’t want to go to school here? I’ll make your favourite every night for dinner.’ I mean, I do love her lasagne, but I think I may have gotten sick of it pretty quickly.’

‘My dad was the same. He was convinced that I was going to end up joining some weird cult, or getting attacked by a bear, or dating a girl who turned out to be a serial killer or something.’

She notices the way Danny’s eyebrow raises slightly in interest when she says that last part, and looks down at her empty mug so as to conceal her smile.

‘Do you miss him?’ Danny asks.

‘Absolutely. It’s just been him and me for so long, it took a while to get used to the change.’ She realises what she’s just said and tenses slightly. She’s usually careful not to mention anything about her mom. Or the lack thereof. 

Maybe Danny notices this, because she’s doesn’t mention it, just nods thoughtfully and says, ‘yeah, my younger siblings can be kind of a handful, so I felt bad about her leaving to deal with them alone. But at the same time, it was kind of freeing to only be responsible for myself for a change, you know?’

Laura releases the breath she’d been holding and smiles. ‘Yeah, I do.’

‘So, Laura. You lived with your dad, you have good taste in literature, and, from what I’ve seen, a seriously sweet tooth. What else can you tell me about yourself?’

Two hours, two coffees, one hot cocoa and several inappropriate remarks from Elsie later, Danny’s laughing at another of Laura’s anecdotes about how her dad had had to save her from a particularly vicious gaggle of geese when she was six.

‘I would have paid good money to see that. You never know, it could still happen. You’re probably still not that much taller than them.’

Laura’s jaw drops in offense, and she slaps Danny on the arm.

‘Well we can’t all tower ten feet above them to scare them off.’

‘Touché, Hollis,’ Danny laughs, rubbing her arm. She glances at her phone and frowns. ‘I really wish I could stay, but I have a class I TA for now.’

Laura also finds herself pouting, which makes Danny smile.

‘Pass me your phone,’ she says, trying not to laugh at the flip phone that Laura hands over.

‘Don’t,’ she just says, and Danny raises her hands in mock surrender. She flips it open and punches the keys a series of times, before handing it back.

‘We should do this again sometime,’ she says, shouldering her bag.

‘Totally,’ Laura replies, smiling warmly at her.

Danny looks like she wants to say or do something else, but in the end just ends up poking Laura in her side and saying, ‘Later, Shorty.’

‘Not that short,’ Laura calls after her, and laughs when Danny passes the window outside and sticks her tongue out at her.

She looks down at her phone to see a new number listed under ‘Danny Lawrence :)’ 

Her heart flutters in her chest.

She’s so screwed.


	2. Chapter 2

It’s nearing ten o’clock later that night, and Laura’s phone buzzes from its place on her bedside table.

She’s been making notes from her journalism textbook whilst Carmilla reads one of her many Camus books and blares the Runaways loudly from her stereo.

(Laura, who thinks the Runaways were actually pretty rad, decides not to start another fight and lets it be.)

She reaches for her phone, not looking up from her textbook and knocking several things over in the process, and flips it open to read once she’s finished her sentence.

Received (21:57)  
Danny: So I had a nice time today.

Laura smiles, ignoring Carmilla’s snarky comment (‘What? Are your family of chipmunks coming to take you back to your tiny, fluffy kind?’ She’ll give that a six out of ten, she’s done better.) and begins to type out a response.

Sent: 21:59  
Laura: Me too. Even if I didn’t get much reading done.

When her phone buzzes a minute later, she closes her textbook and puts it back in her bag, giving up on any chance of getting more work done tonight, and shifts so she’s leaning against the wall, feet (just barely) hanging off the side of the bed.

Received: 22:00  
Danny: Just don’t tell your dad. He might come after me for being a bad influence.

Sent: 22:01  
Laura: Oh yeah, because I’m sure the VP of the Summer Society is SUCH a bad influence.

Danny doesn’t reply for a while, and Laura starts to worry that she overstepped some kind of line or said the wrong thing. She didn’t want to seem clingy by sending another text, but what if her previous one didn’t go through? Her phone was really old. Or what if something had happened? What if Danny was in trouble? What if the bears her dad always warned her about had eaten her?!

She’s a second away from grabbing her bear spray from the wardrobe when her phone goes off.

Received: 22:27  
Danny: Sorry about that. Speaking of SumSoc, Elsie thought it would be a good idea to try and transform the living room into a sparring space. Spoiler: it wasn’t.

Received: 22:28  
Danny: I have to go deal with the aftermath of it and make sure Elsie knows she owes us a new TV. Talk to you soon?

Sent: 22:29  
Laura: I hope so. Try not to kill Elsie, she’s the only one who knows my order by heart.

Received: 22:31  
Danny: No promises. Goodnight Hollis.

Sent: 22:31  
Laura: Night Danny 

Received: 22:33  
Danny: :)

 

It’s a Saturday morning and Laura once again finds herself in the A-Caf.

Their dorm had been forced to undergo a fire evacuation in the early hours of the morning, and Laura had been unable to fall back to sleep. After spending an hour or so trying to block out Carmilla’s snoring (who, suspiciously, had only appeared after the fire alarm was pulled) she decided to get dressed and head out.

So here she was making conversation with Elsie at half-seven on a Saturday morning.

She was about to suggest that they work together to have any time before nine in the morning illegalised, when the bell over the door rings, and Elsie calls ‘hey, Cap,’ over Laura’s head.

Laura turns around and, when she looks back on this moment, will have no idea how she kept from falling off her stool, because in walks Danny.

Post-morning-jog Danny.

Panting, sweaty Danny.

Panting, sweaty Danny in short shorts and a muscle tee.

Oh boy.

Danny flips Elsie off, who just smiles sweetly in response. ‘You want your Saturday usual?’ she asks, already heading to the fridge and grabbing a bottle of orange juice.

‘If you promise not to poison it,’ Danny responds, hopping onto the stool next to Laura.

‘I’ll see what I can do. Watch the place,’ Elsie says, already making her way into the kitchen at the back as Danny rolls her eyes. Danny and Laura are the only customers with the exception of a couple of students typing away frantically on their last minute essays at the far end of the café.

Danny turns her attention to Laura and grins that big ‘Danny grin’, as Laura has called it in her head.

‘Hey you. You’re up early.’

‘I could say the same for you, but I don’t know why I’m even surprised that you willingly exercise first thing on a Saturday.’

‘Well, I am on the track team. Gotta keep in shape,’ she says before taking a large gulp of her juice, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand.

‘Much less impressively, I am just here because someone decided to set the fire alarm off at four this morning.’

‘Ouch.’

‘Yup.’ Laura swivels from side to side on her stool. ‘So, do you do this every Saturday?’

‘Pretty much. I run for an hour or so and then come here and be pestered by Elsie. She makes me breakfast for free though, so it all works out.’

‘Speaking of,’ Elsie says, as she appears with a plate laden with scrambled egg, peppers, avocado and many other things Laura’s ashamed to say she generally tends to avoid in favour of, well- sugary treats. She has to admit that Elsie’s cooking didn’t look like something to turn away lightly. The cook in question had disappeared back into the kitchen after a professor Laura recognises ordered a stack of pancakes. She makes a note to eat here properly more often.

Danny laughs at the way Laura’s eyeing her plate and asks if she’s eaten yet today.

‘With the exception of the cookie I grabbed on the way out of my room, nope.’

‘You should try eating something that doesn’t possess so many polysyllabic chemicals,’ Danny says, laughing. She balances on the rung of her stool, reaching over the counter to grab a fork and hands it to Laura. ‘Here.’

Laura looks from the fork to the plate, as if she’s been handed the Holy Grail, which just makes Danny laugh some more.

‘Are you sure?’

‘Totally. It’s not like I paid for it,’ she replies with a wink.

‘Oh, that would be a whole different story,’ Laura says, and- was she flirting? Were they flirting? It felt like they were. 

To stop herself panicking over the possibility of Greek Goddess Danny Lawrence flirting with her, she shovels a forkful of eggs into her mouth. And moans.

‘Oh my God.’

‘Right?’ Danny says, taking her own mouthful. ‘Elsie may be a pain in the ass, but she’s a damn good cook.’

The next twenty minutes is spent each telling the other about their week (even though they’d been texting on and off throughout) and when they’re finished, Danny insists on paying for a slice of pie for them to share.

‘You can get the next one,’ Danny says when Laura attempts to protest. Laura just smiles and prods Danny’s knee with a quiet, ‘okay.’

They only get up to go when they realise that it’s gone eleven, and they’ve been talking for hours. Danny holds the door open for Laura to pass through first, and- although her feminism certainly isn’t the biggest fan of chivalry, she knows that this is just how Danny is, and it makes her smile.

She does that a lot with Danny, she realises. Smile.

‘I’m this way,’ Danny says, motioning behind her, towards where Laura knows the Summer Society lodge is located.

‘And I’m this way.’ Laura points in the opposite direction. ‘Thanks for sharing your breakfast with me.’

‘Anytime,’ Danny replies. She lifts her arm to scratch at the back of her neck, her eyes glancing away briefly. ‘Like, maybe next Saturday?’

‘I’d like that,’ Laura grins.

‘Great. Have a nice day, Laura Hollis.’ She steps forward and Laura’s heart all but stops for a second as Danny leans down and presses a quick kiss to her cheek. She straightens back up, winks at Laura, and makes her way off down the street.

Laura turns before bringing her hand to touch her cheek where Danny had kissed it. She briefly acknowledges that she’s acting like the girl in a clichéd rom-com, but then decides that if her leading lady is Danny Lawrence, she’s absolutely okay with that.

Maybe Saturday mornings weren’t so bad after all.

 

‘The pie is so good here.’

‘Yeah, suspiciously good…’

‘Well, I mean-, no. No, LaFontaine, you cannot experiment on the A-Caf’s food.’

‘But you said it yourself, it’s SO good. Like, ‘it-shouldn’t-scientifically-be-possible’ good.’

‘LaFontaine, if I see a single crumb of that pie make its way into a test tube I will have nothing more to do with you.’

Laura watches Perry and LaFontaine bicker as she tries to contain her giggles. Nobody loses an argument against Perry, but it’s still fun to watch. 

She’s contemplating telling LaF to just give in before Perry explodes, when Kirsch stops by their table.

‘Hey, Lit Hottie!’ he says excitedly. 

‘Hello, Kirsch. You know my name’s actually Laura, right?’

‘Totally, but Hottie is like a badge of honour, you should wear it proudly,’ he grins and Laura has to try really hard not to roll her eyes.

‘Right. Well, can I help you with something?’

‘Oh, yeah. So you’re really smart, right?’ He takes Laura’s silence as a sign to continue. ‘Well, I was hoping you could help me with the lit essay we have in soon.’

‘You mean ‘soon’ as in tomorrow?’ Laura asks slowly.

‘Really? Oh, crap. Well then yeah, that one.’

‘As nice as that offer is, I have my own essay to go over before I turn it in. Sorry, Kirsch.’

He literally starts to pout as if it’s going to magically change her mind. ‘Aw come on, Little Hottie, I was really counting on you.’

‘Well maybe,’ comes a voice from behind Kirsch, ‘you should start your own work earlier instead of relying on your classmates. Or, here’s another wild idea, you could actually pay attention in your classes, and then maybe you’d know what the hell you’re supposed to be doing.’

Kirsch groans, turning around to come face to face (literally, they’re both insanely tall) with Danny.

‘Summer Psycho, why have you gotta go ruin everything for me all the time?’

‘I don’t know, why have you and your Zeta buddies gotta be such jerks all the time?’

‘Hey, not cool.’

‘That’s what we keep trying to tell you losers, but I guess you’re only just getting the message.’

‘That is so not what I meant-.’

Laura is watching the exchange with widened eyes flitting from one to the other. She’s heard of the age-old rivalry between the Summer Society and the Zetas, but this is the first time she’s witnessing it first-hand. It’s also the first time she’s seen Danny so heated and, well, she can’t help but appreciate the way her muscles tighten just that little bit, and she thanks her lucky stars that Danny decided to wear a plaid shirt with the sleeves rolled up today.

She snaps out of her daydreaming when she realises that their attention seems to have turned back to herself.

‘I was just asking Nerd Hottie here,’ he says, pointing a large finger in her face, and she has to crane backwards to avoid losing an eye, ‘to help me out.’

‘First of all,’ Danny barks, grabbing the offending limb from Laura’s face, ‘her name is Laura. Second of all, it is not her responsibility to keep you from failing when you’ve left your work too late.’

But Kirsch doesn’t seem to be taking in the latter half of Danny’s words, as he’s looking between Laura and Danny with a look of suspicion. Then his mouth drops open and he lets out a low ‘oh.’

‘Oh, my bad bro,’ he says to Danny.

For once, Danny doesn’t seem to know how to respond to Kirsch’s words and glances around in confusion.

‘What?’

‘Well,’ Kirsch says, ‘I didn’t realise she was your hottie.’

Laura chokes on the mouthful of cocoa she’d unfortunately taken just at the moment, and Perry reaches over frantically to pat her on the back.

Danny’s gone bright red and seems to have taken to spluttering incoherently, whilst LaFontaine just takes the whole situation in with a look of total amusement.

‘She’s not-,’ Danny spits out at the same time as Laura coughs, ‘I’m not-.’

‘Ah, keeping it on the down-low, I get it. No worries, hottie-couple, I’ve got your back,’ Kirsch says, seemingly oblivious to the havoc he’s caused. ‘Sorry about before, a bro shall never try to steal another bro’s chick. Even if just for lit help. Thanks anyway, Laura,’ he says, making sure to put emphasis on the use of her actual name.

He then reaches his palm down to Laura and says ‘nice going, by the way’, who weakly high fives him with a look of confusion.

‘You know, on taming Tall, Dark and Angry over there,’ he whispers, jabbing a thumb over his shoulder in Danny’s direction, who looks fit to burst. ‘Anyway, later dudes.’

And just like that, he’s out the door.

Laura finds the courage to look up at Danny who’s gaping back. LaF’s still smirking, and Perry seems to be attempting to conceal a knowing smile.

‘I’ve gotta go,’ Danny half-shouts quickly, before she too is barrelling out the door.

Through the window, the three of them see her catch up with Kirsch, and promptly smack him over the head with her book.

Perry and LaF turn back around and fix Laura with the same demanding stare.

‘Tell us everything.’

She sighs.

 

It’s been five days since the incident with Kirsch in the A-Caf, and Danny’s been avoiding her.

Any texts Laura’s sent have received short replies and, despite having been back a bunch of times in the hopes of seeing her, Laura can safely say that Danny has not been getting her coffee from the café in the last few days.

The only time Laura had seen her was on her way out of her journalism seminar the other day. She’d walked out, chatting with SJ, when she’d caught a blur of red and spotted Danny do a U-turn and try to hurriedly push herself through the throngs of students, back the way she’d come. Laura had just sighed and continued on her way back to her room, knowing her short legs were no match for Danny.

She groans into hands for the hundredth time before a loud thud by her head makes her jump.

Elsie had slammed a plate down on the counter where Laura had been, rather noticeably, feeling sorry for herself, and was now glaring down at her.

‘Alright kid, as much as I do actually appreciate your company, your little pity-fest is scaring off the customers. So, eat this,’ she pushes the plate bearing a particularly large slice of cake towards Laura, ‘and tell me what’s got you so worked up.’

Laura grabs a fork, shovelling a large bite into her mouth, only to continue to stare miserably at the cake.

‘What is it? School struggles?’

Laura shakes her head.

‘Is Carmilla driving you crazy again?’

Laura thinks back to yesterday, when Carmilla had eaten all of her cookies again, and borrowed her jacket without asking, leaving Laura to shiver all the way to her lecture. Though a Carmilla based rant was tempting, she shook her head again.

‘Girl problems?’

Laura’s fork pauses halfway to her mouth and she glances at Elsie, who’s looking at her knowingly.

‘I should have known,’ she says, wiping down the counter. ‘So, what’s Danny done?’

‘I never said anything about Danny,’ Laura says quickly. Too quickly. Elsie smirks.

‘Oh please, the way you two were always fawning over one another was making me nauseous. I considered hosing you down a few times. So, what happened?’

Shoulders slumping, Laura gives up trying to convince Elsie otherwise, and moves the remaining cake around on her plate.

‘The other day Kirsch was pestering me about our Lit assignment.’ (She hears Elsie mutter ‘Zeta douche’ under her breath.) ‘And when Danny told him to back off, he made the assumption that we were a couple. Naturally, I was a little taken aback, but Danny just totally freaked. She bolted out the door and I haven’t seen or heard from her properly since. I mean, I know we’re not a couple but-, I don’t know, I thought maybe we had something there. I guess I was just being stupid, because clearly even the idea of dating me is enough to make her become a recluse.’

‘Oh my god, that idiot.’

Laura looks up, tilting her head questioningly. 

‘That explains why she’s been moping around the Summer Society lodge like a kicked puppy for the last week.’

Laura scoffs, ‘I struggle to see how that makes any sense.’

‘Laura, I like you, I do. And I love Danny. But you’re both idiots.’ She continues off of Laura’s affronted expression. ‘Danny’s avoiding you because she feels the exact same way as you do. She probably freaked because she thinks Kirsch revealed her feelings for you and is avoiding the pain of being turned down.’

‘Yes, but-, wait, feelings?’

‘Uh, duh. Danny literally doesn’t shut up about you, it’s kind of annoying, no offense. Do you know how many meetings she’s zoned out of when you’ve texted her? And Danny’s the most focused person I know. I was just waiting for you two to get your shit together and make out, or whatever. I would have assumed you were already doing that if it weren’t for how nervous Danny would get when you had plans.’

Laura’s fairly sure her brain is going a hundred miles a minute. Danny got nervous? She talked about her? Danny really, properly liked her?

‘Hey? Earth to Laura?’ Elsie is snapping her fingers in front of Laura’s face, regaining her attention.

‘Well,’ Laura says, still not totally sure what was going on, ‘how do I get her to talk to me? She’s managed to successfully avoid me all week.’

Elsie sighs and digs her hand into her jean pocket, pulling out a key and sliding it across the counter to Laura.

‘This is my key to the Summer Society lodge. Danny’s room is right at the top, last door on the left.’

Laura looks between Elsie and the key, not moving. Elsie rolls her eyes, grabbing Laura’s hand and placing the key into it. 

‘Go. Tell her to stop being an idiot. Make up. Make out. Have vertically challenged sex on her bed, I don’t care, just do something.’

‘You know what, you’re right,’ Laura says, feeling a rush of exhilaration.

‘Hell yeah I am, go get some, Hollis.’

‘No, not about that. Just that I deserve some kind of answer. So I’m gonna go get it.’

‘Good. Anything to stop Lawrence from blasting those depressing records from her room all day and night. Just leave the key on the table by the door, I’ll get it later.’

‘Thanks Elsie.’ Laura fishes around in her bag to pay.

‘Don’t worry about it, just get going.’

Laura flashes her a smile, before exiting the A-Caf and determinedly making her way to the Summer Society Lodge East of campus.

She was going to get some answers.

 

Okay, so Laura had totally been all pumped up to march into Danny’s room and just do- well, something. But in the ten minutes it had taken her to walk across campus, her head was starting to fill with doubts.

What if Elsie had got it all wrong? What if Danny really just didn’t want anything to do with her? 

Well Hell, she thinks, even if she doesn’t, she was going to find out. Then at least she could move on instead of moping around and feeling sorry for herself.

It’s this last minute burst of motivation that gives her to courage to cross the front lawn of the lodge, and turn Elsie’s key in the lock. She pushes the door open and peers in. She can’t see or hear anyone, which is probably a good thing, because she’s not quite sure how she’d explain having a key to a house that she doesn’t live in, inhabited by a society she’s not a part of. She shuts the door quietly, just in case, and leaves Elsie’s key in the bowl on the table to her left. 

Looking around, she resists the urge to investigate the rest of the downstairs. The lodge is nice. Like, really nice. She makes a note to go see Perry and LaF about accommodation regulations, because their dorm was nothing compared to this. Instead, she tiptoes over to the staircase and begins to make her way up. It turns out the house has four floors, and she takes in how each floor leads off to corridors of about eight rooms on each floor. Once she gets to the third floor, the staircase cuts off and is replaced by something a little more like a ladder, leading up to the converted attic.

She guesses this is where the president and other girls with higher positions live, considering that Danny is the VP. As she reaches the last few steps, she hears music coming from one of the rooms. Straight ahead, she sees four rooms, fairly well spread out, and heads to the one on the far left. It’s covered with a series of post-it notes, and Laura struggles to contain her laughter when she reads one that says:

‘If you don’t turn off that music I’m gonna kick your freakishly tall ass.  
\- Elsie.’

She takes a deep breath and knocks on the door.

‘For the last time Elsie, we both know whose ass is gonna get kicked if you don’t go away.’

‘Not Elsie.’

She hears what sounds like a loud thump followed by a few seconds of scuffling, and then Danny’s opening the door, taking her in with wide eyes.

‘Laura.’

‘That’s me.’

‘No, I- what are you doing here?’

‘You’ve been avoiding me. And it’s not fair. So here I am.’

‘How did you get in?’

‘Elsie lent me her key.’

‘Of course she did.’

You both stand there awkwardly, Danny with her hands deep in her pockets, and Laura tapping her hand nervously against her leg.

‘Uh, you should come in. If you want, I mean.’ Danny says, stepping aside to let Laura in.

When Laura steps across the threshold she can’t help but smile a little upon her first sight of Danny’s room.

The first thing she notices is that it’s filled with books. Like, overflowing with them. A couple of shelves are crammed with paperbacks, and it looks like Danny’s had to start several piles at the foot of her bed, with a few more on her bedside table. Laura spots an old copy of Mrs Dalloway lying on top, and she thinks back to that first time they’d hung out at the café. Her laptop is open on her desk next to a pile of ungraded papers. A few photo frames decorate the desk; pictures of Danny smiling with who Laura assumes must be her family. There’s one in particular of Danny carrying a younger sibling on her shoulders, smiling brightly towards the camera. On the other side of the room, Danny’s bed is a little messy, as if she’d been lying on it before Laura arrived. The sheets and pillows are all mismatched, with what looks like a homemade blanket thrown over the top. Laura vaguely remembers Danny saying her mother was pretty into knitting.

She turns to look at Danny, who had been watching her take in her surroundings.

‘It’s not much,’ she says with a shrug.

‘No, I like it. It’s very you. It’s-,’ Laura looks around again, searching for the right word, ‘warm.’

Because that’s how Laura feels when she’s with Danny; her chest fills with warmth and she feels comforted and excited all at once.

‘Look, Laura,’ Danny starts. ‘I’m sorry for avoiding you. That was kind of a dick thing to do. It wasn’t fair on you. I just-.’

‘Just what? Why did you do it?’

Danny scratches the back of her neck, something Laura’s noticed she does when she’s nervous. ‘It’s embarrassing.’

‘I embarrass myself on a daily basis. You can tell me.’

Danny lets out a small laugh, before diverting her gaze to her bed.

‘The thing is,’ she takes a breath. ‘The thing is, I like you Laura. A lot. I thought you were cute when I first saw you in the café, and then when we started talking I realised how great you are, and it went from enjoying hanging out with you, to the best part of my day being whenever I heard from you or saw you. And then Kirsch went and messed everything up, as usual, and I just felt like my feelings became so obvious in that moment, and I couldn’t deal with you turning me down. So I ran. And now here we are, and this is way more embarrassing that anything else anyway, so it was all pointless in the end and if you think abou-.’

Danny’s rambling is only cut off when Laura closes the distance between them, standing up on her tiptoes to pull Danny down by her shirt, and pressing their lips together.  
It’s clumsy, and Laura has to pull away after a few seconds to avoid falling over. Danny’s eyes are closed, her mouth slightly agape, and Laura giggles softly. She watches as Danny’s eye slowly open, and her surprised expression turns into that big, goofy grin that Laura’s grown to love so much.

‘Danny,’ Laura says, taking the girl’s hand and lacing their fingers together. ‘I like you too, you dummy.’

‘Really?’ Danny squeezes her hand.

‘Really really.’ She runs her thumb along Danny’s. ‘So, maybe next time I come over, it won’t have to be because of Elsie’s well-intentioned meddling?’

Danny’s eyes narrow at this. ‘I’m still totally gonna kill her.’

But then Laura’s kissing her again, and Danny’s hands come to rest at her waist. They both smile into the kiss, and Danny pulls away briefly to bump her nose again Laura’s.

‘Okay, so maybe I’ll thank her first. But then I’m killing her.’

Laura just laughs, tugging Danny by her shirt as they both tumble back onto Danny’s bed.

 

A while later, when Laura’s hands are in Danny’s hair, and Danny’s palms are on the small of Laura’s back, skin on skin, Laura feels Danny laugh into her mouth. She pulls back and raises her eyebrow in question.

‘I was just wondering,’ Danny says, smiling. ‘If maybe you wanted to go for coffee with me sometime?’

Laura lets out a loud laugh, as Danny grins at her, hair messy and eyes bright.

‘Just shut up and kiss me, Danny.’

And she does just that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and there we have it! leave a comment if you feel like it and enjoyed reading it!


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